Horizontally hinged doors of the overhead type are well known in the prior art. Such doors are typically constructed from several panels that are hinged together to allow the door to be raised from a vertical closed position to a horizontal open position overhead. To ensure a smooth transition from the vertical to horizontal orientation, each door panel is relatively thin in comparison to its length and width. Thus, such door panels are often structurally weak and susceptible to bending or flexing under normal loading conditions.
Known overhead door panels are usually formed from a thin sheet of metal such as aluminum. This type of construction results in a hinged door that is relatively loud during operation. In addition, metal doors are highly heat conductive, which causes thermal insulation problems. To alleviate the high noise levels and thermal conductivity, some manufacturers include insulation material within the door panels. However, such prior art door panels may still be structurally weak. Indeed, ordinary sandwich construction door panels may depend upon the adhesive bonding itself for their strength. As such, if the bonding should fail or weaken such prior art door panels may lose their strength and rigidity. Furthermore, other prior art door panels may be impractically thick or heavy due to added insulation layers or strengthening members.
The door panel orientation, hinge mounting position, or other design elements of prior art door panels may cause the overhead door to operate poorly. For example, the substantially rigid connection between older door panels and the corresponding hinges may cause the overhead door to rattle or shake during opening and closing. This can create noise in excess of the inherent mechanical noise associated with the operation of a sliding garage door.